The Love of an Angel
by Seph4evr
Summary: One shot of what Genesis might have had to leave behind when he was finding out what he was and how his absence might have affected more than just his friends in SOLDIER and his struggle with facing what he was made to be.


**The Love of an Angel**

_**I own none of Square Enix's characters this is fan made. Hope you enjoy**_

He walked the grime coated streets of Midgar as he exited the ShinRa building. He flipped his reddish brown hair from his dark Mako blue eyes and scanned the passing civilians. They stared with their muddy brown eyes, some in awe and lust, others in fear and hatred. He scoffed with a careless grin and continued down the street.

He passed by many alley ways filled with shadows concealing the even grimier walls lined with dumpsters and garbage. I was slumped along one of those allies. My green eyes were half-closed in pain from the beating I'd just endured from the bar I'd waitressed. I had spilled a tray of drinks across the laps of very important men in Sector 7. They were the Dons that controlled the street crime of the Sectors and I had ruined their pricey suits with liquor. My dark brown hair fell across my bruised cheek that was already an ugly shade of purple and black and a wet tear slid down it, slightly soothing the dull ache. My icy pink glossed lips parted in a low moan as another sob escaped my throat.

I didn't know why I always went back to work after these regular beatings. Of course, when I was freshly bruised and beaten I wasn't put on the tables, I was kept in the back on cleaning duty or if the men who used the back rooms wanted a piece of flesh they liked to see injured and cry she was sent to accommodate their lusty wants.

She had only been in the rooms a handful of times and had decided that she would never return so bruised that she would be sent back there again. It was almost better back at the Orphanage. At least there she'd been too young for the predatory eyes of men although even there she had reached the age where she was noticed by the young orphan boys and men who worked there. But there she had had a place to run to and be out of reach. Fresh tears streaked down her face and she rubbed them carefully away along with her glittery face paint and gloss. She dragged the hem of her apron across her eyes to clear them of the shadow, liner and mascara so it would stop running into her eyes as she felt another wave of tears break free.

I was nothing to any of them, not my unloving father, not the Orphanage workers, not her employers or co-workers or the men who would take her in those rooms, not even the ones who would come back for her every other night. She remembered when she had her first reoccurring 'client' that she had hoped it would be her fairy tale ending like in the torn and stained story books back at the Orphanage. He would pay her every time but he would also whisper his words of love that meant nothing. She later saw him when she was waitressing when he was out with his actual wife. When he saw her he pulled her aside and explained the 'rough patch' in his relationship was finally resolved and he didn't want her to speak to him about it ever again unless it happened again later. She had thrown a fit and ran from the bar to later return to find the other girls and some of the boy toys laughing at her naivety. She had sworn she would never put her faith in a man to save her, none of them cared about the welfare of women. She realized she could only rely on herself in this hate filled world of sin.

I stood from my reverie and dried my face and dusted off my skirt and blouse before walking out into the smog gray open street. The click of my high heels drew clouded eyes that lingered on my curves and called wolf whistles and cat calls. I struggled to avert my eyes but I couldn't. The greedy bastards lined my path to the fountain of Sector 5 and a few followed me.

I finally sat on the edge of the clean fountain and gazed into its clear, calm waters. This was where I came to relax. My mother had taken me here when I was little to relax from the stress of the household in Sector 7, or the Slums. She would come here when she was bruised and beaten like I did now, but her abuse wasn't from work, it was from my father when he would come home drunk or high. She would tell him that they needed to set her a better example and that the gil should be spent on food and clothes, not alcohol or drugs. He would beat her into submission as I hid in the spot she had told me to go to whenever he got like this. I would hide under the loose floor board under my bed in my tiny room, a place he didn't know was there. But the floors and walls weren't soundproof. She would come to get me later, her body bruised and her clothes torn but hastily tied to resemble their original form until she could mend the giant rips and holes. I never asked her about the clothes. I never asked about the noises that came after the fists to her body. I knew now though, she had wanted me to never have to see it, but I had. When I was too big for my hiding place in the Orphanage I was once caught by the fat head of guard and another when I thought I was finally being adopted to a good home.

I had been braiding one of the other orphan girl's hair when the secretary from the front desk came and brought me to meet a smiling man in his late twenties to early thirties. I had been only sixteen at the time and was still young to the world when he adopted me and brought me to his home. It was an actual house that had carpets, furniture that wasn't falling apart and heating and cooling systems. It was a moderate house in the economy but it was heaven to me. I was so happy, until he came for me the next night.

I shuddered at the painful memory. He had given me all I had wanted and shown me how horrible a place of my dreams could be. I reached out and skimmed the surface of the water with my fingertips and steadied my breathing. That's when I saw his reflection. He was the man I'd seen come out of the ShinRa building from my alley. My breath caught in my throat at his beauty before the wall instantly went up at such deadly beauty. He was just like the others who were pretty on the outside, just a manipulative ugly spirited beast on the inside.

He stood close to the fountain and studied it's elegant structure before peering into the water. His eyes found mine in our reflections and a crooked grin crossed his lips. My heart involuntarily skipped a beat and I saw my cheeks flush a bright red.

He sat beside me and adjusted his red leather coat before looking through his spikey red-brown bangs at me. I looked at my hands in my lap and angled my face away from his view but he leaned forward.

"Hey, what's your name? I've seen you around here quite a lot." He asked cheerily.

"Uh," I stammered as I looked back into those dark blue eyes that gave away the secret of his power as a man of ShinRa's SOLDIER operatives. "I'm Mai."

"Genesis." He offered as he held out a red gloved hand. I looked at it warily but slowly took it and gasped as he shook it once before releasing it back to me, half expecting it to lash out at my already sore body. "Hey, um, you look a little rough handled. Is everything okay?"

I nodded as a tear glided down my bruised cheek again, giving away my lie. I shook my head and fell into my hands as I propped them on my knees and choked on tears. I flinched as he placed his hand on my back and tentatively touched my knee. I looked sideways at him to find his face leaning close to me. I waited for him to force himself on me but concern was all I saw in those deep Mako blue depths, not lust or aggression. I let him pull me close to him, let him stroke my hair as it spilled down my back and across my face, let him rock me gently and rub my back. My arms wrapped around his neck, my head resting between his strong shoulder and elegant neck. His leathery, husky scent filled my senses. I breathed him in, inhaling deep. The scent and stroking motions calmed me down and I finally pulled away enough to dry my eyes and sheepishly smile up at the SOLDIER.

"I'm sorry about that…" I mumbled. "It's just stress from work and….all the crap of life…and you aren't interested in my troubles."

He gently shook his head with a smile. "No, tell me who did…this...to you. I want to know. No one should treat a pretty face like this! At least not that I know about. Was it one of those scum bags around that bar?" he was looking around like he really wanted to find who had hurt me.

My eyes widened and I shook my head. "I work there…I kinda spilled a tray of drinks on some really important men and my boss…well, you can see what he did. I didn't want to be used in the back rooms so I ran here." I looked down at the stoic water. "It was where my mother took me when we were hurt or stressed when I was little, before my father finally killed her." I confessed.

He wrapped me in a tight hug and whispered in my ear. "It's alright now. You won't ever have to go there again. I'll make sure that place is shut down…permanently."

"Wha…? What do you mean?"

He stood and supported my sore body with an arm around my waist. It wasn't a lusty, feely grab, it was a compassionate grab for support. I leaned into his side as he slowly led me back to the bar, the Happy Turtle.

The small building was as grimy and run down as the surrounding buildings. Its dark green tinted windows keeping all the little light from outside out and all the sour gloom of its interior in. Even outside on the sidewalk the sour stench of booze and vomit stung their noses. I didn't want to go back to that place. Hadn't Genesis told me I wouldn't have to go there ever again or what?

"What are we doing here?" I asked with a grimace as I tried to walk for myself away from him and the nightmarish bar. "I don't want to go back there anymore, like you said, right?" I leaned against his hold and for fear of me falling backwards he stopped and pulled back against him.

"I want to put an end to whoever did this. I want you to show me the scum bag." He growled.

"Why? Why do you want to help me? I'm just a girl you've seen and just now introduced yourself to, what do you owe me to do this? Whatever you're doing…" I asked with a tired voice. If he was going to use me and used this to get in good enough graces for me to actually let him then I wanted to know for sure before I let him.

"Because, you're beautiful and it pains me to see a young, beautiful woman in distress. I'm SOLDIER," he confessed although I already knew. "and if I can't protect those in Midgar as well as my men in Wutai, then what use am I?"

I nodded and clung to him. Every fiber in my body screamed at me that he didn't mean it, that he was just a crafty liar. But for some reason I still held him and he comforted me, for some reason I found truth in his words.

When we entered the bar, my boss was swabbing the greasy countertop with a soiled rag. He looked up and scoffed. "Well, look who finally decided to come back to work! Ready to apologize to the Dons for soiling their suits? They're relaxing in Room 5 when you're ready, hehehe." He told her laughing shrewdly.

Genesis's face screwed up in anger and he carefully set me down in a chair at one of the empty tables. I stared in shock as my boss, well former boss, dropped his dirt smudged rag and staggered back into the rack of bottles behind him, realization flashing across his oily face. Genesis banged his gloved fist down on the counter sending a long jagged crack down the length of it, splintering it in two.

"Who are you? You're that SOLDIER guy aren't you? You're one of those monsters!"

"Genesis, SOLDIER First Class, and you are a sleazy scum bag that doesn't deserve to live. I know the city is caked with filth like you, but I won't stand by while you've hurt Mai so many times." He drew his red rapier and ran his hand along it and it glowed as his firaga materia fused its magic with the blade. He slashed out at the building's interior and at her boss. The back rooms were emptied as the girls and 'clients' alike fled for their life. The workers were spared but the Dons who exited, pushing everyone out of their way, were burned to a blackened corpse where they ran. Their charred skeletons fell to their knees and barreled forward in their momentum to collapse and crumble into a pile of ash. I was terrified and awed at the same time. All this was for me, my fellow employees and whoever the Dons terrorized, but mostly for me. No one had ever done anything like this for me, ever. Except my mother, the only person who had ever loved me. Did that mean what I thought it meant or was I just wishful thinking? If my assumption was wrong, half of me didn't want to be wrong.

He stabbed the boss through his chest slowly and grinned evilly as he burned, being cooked from the inside out. I cringed and looked away but felt like a heavy weight was lifted off my chest. I felt a smooth gloved hand slide under my arm to help me up and I thankfully leaned against the support and allowed myself to be led out back into the smoggy street. My SOLDIER lifted me into his arms and smiled down at me with the dot of sun shining behind his head like a halo. He was my saving angel.

People mostly ignored the scorched and hacked building, not wanting to get involved when the ShinRa Infantry came to clean up the damage. When they heard that the famous Genesis had done this they only hated it more. I knew there was a grudge between the two job dispositions as to who was needed more and who was better at their job. SOLDIERs were better in combat but were commonly despised due to the Mako treatments they had been injected with in the start of their training with illegitimate experiments going on in the ShinRa labs by their two top scientists. I was scared of them too, but Genesis did what he did to save people and because it was his job. He told me that a SOLDIER rarely thought except when on a mission that required the intelligence and strategy of the super-soldier and not just as a wall of meat to slash through the enemy lines. I pitied him when he talked about what he did. He didn't like to see innocents, whether from Midgar or Wutai or any other country, get injured or killed in any way.

He carried me to his apartment in the ShinRa building. I clung closer to him as we entered the lobby and felt everyone's eyes follow us to the elevator. I didn't want to be stared at, but luckily enough no other SOLDIERs were there at the time, just businessmen/women along with a scientist or two and sales people. He opened his apartment's door and laid me on his large, king-size bed and tossed the card key on the table beside it. I looked up at him questioningly and he smiled reassuringly.

"You're safe here, no one would dare touch you. But, you need new clothes so I'm going to get the catalogs and you can order what you want and charge it to the room. That's my spare card key so you aren't confined here if you want to go elsewhere." He indicated the card key he had tossed onto the table. "You don't have to stay but I'd like it if you did. At least get the new clothes and some food and charge it. I have to go tell the President what happened but I promise he won't involve you. You can rest here."

He turned and left the room, leaving me alone in the large apartment. I cautiously sat up and started when he returned with a pile of catalogs in his hand. "Here you are, pick out whatever you like." Then he left again while punching a speed dial into his PHS as he exited. I flipped through the catalogs and ordered a few dresses and modest wedge sandals and knee boots and ankle boots to match my outfits. I then looked through a menu and ordered a dish of duck and rice with steamed vegetables and was surprised when everything was delivered shortly after.

I ate the food and took one of the dresses to the washroom to shower. When I had cleaned myself and applied medicine to my cuts around my bruises, I slipped into the pale green halter sundress and into a pair of brown leather strap woven boots that went up to about my knee. I brushed out my long dark hair and fixed the bangs to hid the side of my face with the ugly bruise, then I laid back down and slept.

When I woke up Genesis and another man were standing over her. She yawned and stretched before realizing it was another of the three First Class SOLDIER operatives, Angeal Hewley! She quickly smoothed her hair and straightened the wrinkles in her dress before standing and bowing slightly at the SOLDIER. He smiled big and offered a gloved hand. I took it and smiled back, he had the air about him of a friend that I could trust, just like Genesis.

"This is Mai, Mai this is Angeal. He's my childhood buddy from back in Banora. I told him about you and he wanted to meet you himself."

"You're a very brave young woman, Mai. I saw your file when Genesis told me about you. You've been through a lot, I understand humble beginnings but not losing a parent and being left with one that drops you in the Orphanage." Angeal patted my shoulder in sympathy. I nodded and blinked back the threatening tears that began to sting the backs of my eyes.

He left a little while later and Genesis smiled down at me. "Are you planning on staying?" I heard the hopeful tone in his voice and I smiled with a giggle. When was the last time that noise came out of my mouth? And I nodded. "For a bit maybe…I don't want to be a burden and I'm not sure exactly what to do now." I looked down at my dress and twisted on my heels a little back and forth. Genesis pulled me into a hug and I hugged him back, breathing in his calming aroma and wondering how I had come addicted to it in such a short time. He whispered into my straight hair, "You're welcome for as long as you want."

I stayed there for a month or two, I lost track of the weeks after a few. I didn't just stay in the apartment though, Genesis, Angeal and I would go to plays in Loveless Avenue and sit by the fountain as long as the fan girls and fan boys were kept at bay. Surprisingly, their other First Class friend never saw me as did no one else in SOLDIER, except the day we went walking with Angeal's little friend Zack Fair who was Second Class. We were strolling through the Slums and I was pointing out scenes from my short childhood there. Then we came to the Church. I smiled at the white building, it had somehow found a way to remain pure despite the damage done to its towers and walls. I knew that one of our neighbors had taken in a small girl who had somehow gotten lemon colored blossoms to grow in the wrecked floor there. We used to have little play dates there and I would help tend the flowers. I saw Elmyra leading the young girl, Aerith there now and I really wanted to say hello but didn't want to bring SOLDIERs over there, it would only frighten the girl. She was no longer the little girl she had been but she was still haunted by her past with ShinRa and I wasn't even sure she would remember me.

Instead, we went to my old house on Genesis' request. I knocked on the door with a shaking fist and was shocked when my father opened the door with a bottle in his hand. He looked me up and down and scoffed. After taking a swig from the bottle he jeered at me. "So you've finally come crawling back, eh? Just like your mother, weak and dependent…maybe you'd like to see her, wouldn't you?"

I was shoved back by Genesis as he held his rapier by his cheek, ready to attack. "You've caused her enough pain, and now you'll pay for your crimes!" he thrust the red blade clean into the drunk man's chest cavity. My father choked on his blood with a surprised look on his face and his eyes bugging out. I gasped at the gore of it and hugged Genesis from behind. He rested a hand on mine and I choked back sobs into his muscular back. I was glad he was dead. He couldn't hurt me or anyone else on the Planet anymore.

That night, as I lay on the bed for the night, I couldn't sleep. I looked up to fid Genesis enter the apartment holding his shoulder. I got up and ran to him, worry etched on my face.

"What happened?"

"Sparring with the guys and had a little accident. Needed a blood transfusion from Angeal but I'm fine, I swear." He pecked my cheek. I was still worried for him though.

He lied down on the bed and I quickly reheated some of the jasmine tea I'd had earlier and poured him a cup and brought it to him. He sipped it and smiled up at me. I smiled back and crawled beside him and brushed his spikey bangs from his damp brow.

"You're sweating, and you have a fever…" I noticed, looking at him with big green eyes. He was a sucker for my big eyes look, otherwise I wouldn't know a thing about him. He sighed and laughed dryly.

"You never give up when I'm hiding something, do you? It's what I admire about you." He smiled and drew me to his chest to lean up and kiss me. I returned the kiss and settled onto his chest, looking at him expectantly. "When I was a young, before birth actually, I was part of an experiment under Professor Hollander. Angeal was also part of this experiment, giving us the same blood type. It was Project G, and Angeal's mother was injected with a creature's cells. We're stronger than other SOLDIERs because of this. My own mother was injected with Angeal's mother's cells. That's how I came in contact with them. I'm afraid of what that means, Mai. I'm an experiment of ShinRa! I'm a monster." He began to cry.

I hugged him close and pressed my forehead to his so that our noses were touching and our eyes looking directly into each other. "Genesis, you saved me from my old life of suffering and pain and gave me the best home I could ask for with you and Angeal…I monster wouldn't do that. Not for someone like me."

He hugged me to him and buried his face in my hair. "I don't know what I'd do without you…you are that that ends my eternal slumber of pain with your joyous bliss."

I started at the mention of Loveless. I knew he had been getting quite into the play and had been reciting it frequently, but to hear him affiliate me with some lines from it touched my heart while also giving me an uneasy filling. I wasn't sure where the uneasiness came from but we lay there in each other's arms for the rest of the night.

He continued to quote Loveless, tying me in whenever he recited the literature to me, and we were happy. I was out of the Slums and off the streets and with someone who really cared for me and my well-being. He could compare me to the infinite mystery and gift of the Goddess every day and I'd still feel happy. We were happy together, until he was called away to Wutai.

"Don't go, don't leave me…" I begged when he was suiting up for deployment.

"I have to," he smiled at me. "What would my unit do without me there? The war is almost over and I'll be back to see you in no time."

I blushed. We weren't official as I didn't want anyone to know where I was or that a Slums girl was with a mighty SOLDIER. Here I was acting like we were in a committed relationship. There was a spark, yes, but nothing more and that wrenched my heart. He had so many fan girls and fan boys to pick from either way he swung and I was just a former orphan from the Slums with no family or money or ties to anything in this world except what he had generously given me. He kissed the top of my head and leaned down to whisper in my ear, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone this but I'm going to be stationed on the West of Wutai's capital where we will take out the monsters they have there so we can sign an armistice." He pressed a slip of card stock in my hand. "Maybe we'll meet up there. Just tell Elena if you can make it." He nuzzled my neck and made a purring noise, one of my weaknesses for him he discovered. "It'll be worth our while."

Then he left to join his unit at the launch pad. I followed a little way behind and watched from the rail on the pad as the flock of choppers sped off to Wutai. I looked down at the card stock and saw it was an admission visa to and from Wutai. I smiled as two tears fell down my cheeks and off my chin. So he wasn't up and leaving me.

A week later I was sitting beside the blond Turk on my way to Wutai. She landed the chopper on a base landing pad near the border and we made our way over to the check point. We flashed our visa's and we were in. We found our way to Genesis' camp by one of the targeted mansions of one of the Warlords. I was so excited that I hardly remembered to keep my face hidden.

I pulled my scarf tighter around my face and scanned the camp. SOLDIERs and footmen were scattered throughout the bunkers, some tossing dice, others patrolling and others training in various exercises. I walked beside the Turk to the bunker with a red cloth tied to one of the poles and slipped in to find Genesis leaning over a map of the mansion and its surrounding area. I heard him muttering to himself. "Zack and Angeal are here, Sephiroth is here for the distraction tomorrow so they can move in…we're here to take out the main defense force and give Sephiroth the signal to begin…okay then." He marked something down and I snuck up behind him preparing to surprise him with a hug from behind.

I was about to throw myself around him when he turned around and snatched me up and nibbled my neck. I giggled and struggled to break away from his tight grasp before allowing him to kiss me along my neck and up to my face. "You knew I was here!"

"I sensed you when you entered the camp. I missed you so much." He mumbled against my mouth.

"Are you busy?" I asked as he set me down but didn't let go. I looked around at all the war papers and shivered. "You're going to be okay aren't you? You're not going to get hurt?"

He smiled down at me and nodded. "It's just a standard procedure for our unit. B unit is the distraction and Angeal and Zack are the infiltration unit. Everything should go off without a hitch.

It did for the most part, but when the troops were moving back out to return to Midgar, Genesis wasn't with them. I went looking for him and finally found him staring off into the distance by the edge of a cliff. I joined him and tentatively reached out to touch his arm.

"Genesis…it's time to go home now. The war is over, we can go home…to our bliss, remember?" I tugged gently on his arm but he closed his eyes and a frown was on his face instead of his usual smile.

"What's the use, Sephiroth will get the credit for the war and I will remain in his shadow, a monster." I knew tension was thick between the two friends since the incident especially. Genesis wanted to be a hero but Sephiroth, the strongest SOLDIER, was the image of ShinRa and would always be chosen as the hero in the eyes of the public. "You're not a monster…you're my hero!"

He pulled away and I felt tears fall down my face. I knew he wasn't coming back, that he was leaving me, us! I would be back to the streets, I would be back in a world without love…without trust or beauty. He was my everything… He turned to me with forlorn eyes and sighed.

"I've transferred most of my gil from my company account to one I made in your name, so you won't be back in the filth of the city. You have enough to start a new carefree life wherever you want…with whoever you want…"

"I want you! I only ever wanted you…"

He extended his arm and snarled as a long black wing burst from his left shoulder. I stepped back in shock and shook my head in awe.

"Do you want a monster!" he yelled at me savagely. "Are you going to run away and leave me! I don't deserve you!" tears were glistening down his face too.

"You're not a monster…" I protested quietly.

He glared at me. "Then what am I?"

I reached out with a smile and stroked his soft feathers. "You're an angel. You're my angel and….I think… I know… I love you. A monster wouldn't care about me to save me from my old life and he sure wouldn't help win the war. You're a good man Genesis."

He turned away and stared at the evening sun. "I'm degrading… I'm slowly dying unless we can find a cure. Angeal is in the same boat. We're going to meet up with Lazard. I've already hurt so many lives…"

"You mean the men who died when you attacked the Wutainese defenses? They were accidents…"

"No. They aren't dead, I copied my genes onto them. Now they're monsters too." He raised his wing majestically over his head and launched into the air. I searched for him but couldn't see him. I was beginning to break down when he swooped low and scooped me close to his body and held me close. As we soared through the sky I clung to him and struggled to enjoy the moment, it would be the last joyous time he and I would have together. When he finally landed I still clung to him. He pulled me off and kissed my nose, my eyes and my lips. He continued to kiss me as I clung desperately to him.

"You are the true angel, Mai. You were the only thing that kept me smiling for so long, but I have to stop the degradation to me as well as my unit and Angeal. The Gift of the Goddess is out there with the answer somewhere. When I find her and she bestows her blessing, I will return to you."

"You are, have been and always will be my angel." I cried.

He kissed me deep, reminding me of those nights we had loved each other in each other's arms. I closed my eyes, memorizing every detail of our past and every feature of him. Then his pressure was gone from my mouth, his hands had released my body and a gentle breeze caressed my face. A sob escaped my throat and I clung to the package that he had slipped into my hand on his departure. I opened my eyes and opened the package. It contained video clips labeled by the dates of some times we spent together, there was an album filled with photos of us and a copy of Loveless. I opened the cover and read the short message in his flowing script.

_** 'To my angel whom I love for all eternity, may we meet again if not in life then in the Lifestream.'**_

_** ~Genesis Rhaspsodos **_

I clutched his profession of love to my heart. I returned to Midgar and found the account. Just about all of his gil from his account was now in mine. I wiped a single tear from my cheek and withdrew enough to rent an apartment. I moved all my things from Genesis' apartment and took some of his things to remember him by and moved in. it wasn't long before I got pains in my stomach and discovered I was pregnant.

I cried in joy. My angel hadn't left me, he would be with me, forever. I patted my belly.

"My little angel, your father will always watch over us. I will name you Genesis Junior in his memory."

I looked in on Mai and her small child, our small child, Genesis Junior. She loved me and I loved her and now a little part of me would be with her forever. She kissed Junior's spikey red-brown hair and smiled lovingly into his dark green eyes. I smiled and pushed my white streaked hair from my misting blue eyes and sighed. To know her love was the best thing in the world. I will do anything to see her again, when I wasn't in this state of cellular decay. Minerva had to help me, if she knew of what I had waiting for me…she had to understand. I heard her and Junior talking and listened in.

"Mommy, where's Daddy?"

"He's a very important SOLDIER First Class sweetie. He's on a very important mission right now."

"But, the news reports say that Daddy has been MIA and terrorizing the city…why is he doing that?"

"No sweetie, he's only trying to complete his mission. When he finally completes it, he will get over his sickness and come back to us, I promise."

She smiled warmly at the little boy as he nodded and asked her, "Daddy's a big hero, right?"

She nodded with tear filled eyes. "He certainly is, he just hasn't realized it yet."

Junior scampered off and she stood, rubbing her eyes. "I know he's watching over us, thank you so much Genesis. I love you."

"I love you." I whispered back and waited as she went into the other room. I noticed she was wearing one of my old coats minus the shoulder guards. She was so sexy in my clothes; I remembered all the fun we had had in my old ShinRa apartment. I missed her so much, but I wasn't worthy of her yet. I flew over the city to Banora and rested in the deep pit I had found with the large Banora Apple and smiled into its warm blue glow. "The Gift of the Goddess, my dear and beloved Mai, she will guide us to bliss, her gift everlasting."

I knew Genesis was watching over us. I clutched the framed picture he had taken of himself with his black wing and rapier and smiled down at his smiling face even though his eyes were haunted in the picture. I knew he was in danger by the news that leaked from the ShinRa building as well. Deep in my heart I felt like I would never see him again and that ripped my heart in two. His son would never know of his father except from what he would hear from the media and what I desperately assured him Genesis was like. Half of me faced the reality of not seeing him again and half of me still expected him to walk through that door all better. A tear slid down my face as I crumbled onto the red leather couch.

"To you, my beloved Genesis, ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows now rest." Unbeknownst to me, he and I shared the same thought as he faced his last battle in Banora against our friend Zack.

'_**But even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return, my return to you.'**_

_**I'd love to know what you think of this little story, please review =)**_


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